No criticism intended so don't ANYONE take it!
How's that for a start?
Over the last while I have been thinking that while the web has a lot of positives, there are also negatives. Like we can respond to things too quickly, think what we wrote is inoffensive but a little more time may have toned it down etc. We never know how much knowledge the person giving advice really has, or do they just write well and end up "leading others up the garden path"?
What inspired this ramble? Well, in "the good old days" this sport had enthusiastic participants who avidly promoted the sport through newspapers, magazines, TV etc, and even made up results for the "results section" of major sports publications. The favourite method of communicating was the old fashioned telephone, you rang up people and urged, persuaded, cajoled them into going sailing for the day, then rang the next one. We tried "phone trees" where you made 3 calls, they made 3 each etc, but IT DID NOT WORK! Sometimes cos the next person down was less enthusiastic and passed the message "Some of the guys are going sailing at ... today, so if you want to go.."
Now of course it's even easier, tell people to look at the website, all the info you need is there, check in the morning it will show etc etc, or even a group text confirming or cancelling.
There used to be club newsletters, a PITA to do, but I'm sure lots of people looked forward to them and many still have their whole collection, now it's a website.
Is this why, events that used to have over 50 landyachts and were avidly promoted now have 9?
Or is there another reason why the sport has shrunk so much?

Yes, back when I first got into landsailing at Ohope there would be 30 yachts turn up for local regattas. We did plenty of advertising, put up posters and even got live on local radio. Clubs sent out (by post) newsletters every month. Yes it was an exciting sport back then.
Meanwhile, back in the new 21st century...... Take a look over at the Blokart threads.
Landsailing's not dying. It's getting reborn.

well i'm a baby boomer i think anyway,, i think that it's not promoted enough this sport of land sailing that we love so much, and yes it's true that there aren't many of the young ones coming to play,,, maybe we have ourselves to blame a bit for the seeming lack of interest in land sailing, after all i've never seen, out side of the "web" much open promotion of the sport, no posters no advertising events, infact i got into it mostly by chance, so what hope has anyone else got...Then there's the lack of support for sailing friendly areas to go, and i feel that's another reason for the low numbers after all the young one's aren't going to travel for hours just to get to a beach where you're allowed to sail....maybe we, as a group need to push our sport/hobby/passion into the "limelight" a bit where Joe Citizen can see what we are about without relying on the internet to tell the story...I guess it's open for debate,,, as is everything

I have to agree with what all are saying but I cannot comment on what happened "In the good old days" as I am a newby to the sport having become involved only 5 years ago.

However I had been wanting to get into land sailing for a long time as I knew it was very fast. The only place I had ever seen it was on film. If you can recall the original "The Thomas Crown Affair" movie, I believe land sailing was one of the things Steve McQueen did when he was showing off his lifestyle to Faye Dunaway and my immediate reaction was "I want to do that!!!"

My introduction to the sport 5 years ago was via blokarts. As soon as my wife and I had a ride in one the love affair was instant and we were committed. A major factor in the decision to buy a couple of blokarts was their portability.

So as several people have said blokarts have done the sport a big favour by creating a resurgence through their portability and availability. As has also been said they do represent very good value for those that lack the skills or inclination for home building.

The number of clubs and frequency of organised events is a credit to blokart as well however I feel that scene is a tad "yuppyish" and exclusive. It is usually blokart or no kart, very controlled and the insurance ticket is the excuse to keep other yachts out. Maybe it's just me.

It wasn't long after owning a blokart that I started looking for something faster and less restrictive in design. For that reason I built "Diablo", a Lake Lefroy Mini Explorer. I hope also to build a class 5 soon.

Possibly the main thing slowing the spread of the sport is a generational thing. I think most or at least many of the people seen land yachting (including blokarting) tend to be of "baby boomer" vintage and the young people possibly then think that it is something for the oldies.

Even at blokart events it seems the younger ones involved are only there because their parents own the blokarts.

The financial barrier is a big consideration as unless one is skilled with tools it does need an investment of around $2,000 to get into the sport and that figure is based on second hand.

In the end though publicity has to be the key to gaining wider acceptance of and participation in the sport. There is public money available to better the sport via the federal and state government dept's of sport and recreation but the access to it is only via incorporated clubs. I have tried to get this across in the previous discussions about ALSA but nobody in ALSA seems interested. I don't want to start that arguement again but it is the same old question.

A democraticly representative body is needed to actively promote and market the sport to the general public. Cheers Cisco

As an owner of both a class 5 and now a Blokart I have to admit the ease of transport/assembly wins every time....a larger easy to assemble Blokart would be a great idea.My blokart lives in my Camper's bathroom and thus is always with me ready to go and go

To make sports succeed, the biggest thing is injecting money, take surfing, so-so until billabong pro, womens basketball, netball nothing till corporate money injection, cricket before big business,, yuck!. Equestrian events were horse jimcannas. Rallying costly and stupid waste until the big boys got hold of it same with formula 1. Money made motorbikes, aussie riders helped. Speedway, similar. Yachting, big money. Baseball, Hockey. Where would the football codes be without big dollars , so much so that most of the members cant afford to take their family's thru the turnstyles
Swimming not much money there but its improving, Hockey similar, shooting its dead, kyacking who does this???
Moneys the big factor, someone wants to make money ,they discover a "new" sport
and locks it up with officialism and reaps the reward....straight to the bank!